Protesters keep up heat on Duggan killing verdict

January 12, 2014 - 6:18:08 am

LONDON: Several hundred demonstrators rallied outside a London police station yesterday to condemn an inquest which found that police lawfully shot dead a man in 2011, in a killing that sparked nationwide riots.

They condemned the “perverse” jury verdict returned on Wednesday, on the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot after armed police stopped the taxicab he was in as it travelled through Tottenham, north London, in August 2011.

The jury found Duggan had a gun in the taxi but did not have it in his hand when the fatal shot was fired, having thrown it onto some nearby grass.

The few hundred protesters gathered outside Tottenham police station held placards reading “Justice for Mark Duggan” and remembered others who have died in police custody.

Demonstrators chanted: “Who are the murderers? Police are the murderers” and “No justice, no peace”.

Speaking from the police station steps — with few officers in sight — Duggan’s aunt Carole told supporters: “Mark is not the first person to die at the hands of the police. There are thousands more.

“There is no justice in this country.

“The more we people come together and support each other, maybe we can make a better life for our children.”

She said Duggan, a 29-year-old father of six, was not from a gangster family. A minute’s silence was held and the vigil ended with 20 white doves symbolising peace being released. Duggan’s death was the catalyst for urban riots and looting that spread across London and then other cities including Birmingham and Manchester in 2011, leaving five people dead.